President Donald Trump listens during a meeting on tax policy with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On November 10, U.S. President Donald Trump will visit the thriving tourist town of Da Nang in central Vietnam, where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' forum and CEO summit.

Da Nang is just 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam and the scene of fierce fighting during the Vietnam War. The battle for Hue was a key segment of the 1968 Tet Offensive that ultimately led to the American withdrawal from Vietnam.

Thuy Son Mountain, the most famous of the five Marble Mountains of Da Nong, Vietnam, site of the 2017 APEC summit. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Jackson sent a diplomatic mission led by the Massachusetts merchant Edmund Roberts aboard the USS Peacock to negotiate a commercial treaty with Vietnam. The ship had too deep a draft to port at Hue, so it set out instead for Da Nang, which had a deeper harbor. The Peacock missed Da Nang in a storm and ended up stranded at Vung Lam Bay some 250 miles (400 kilometers) to the south.

The isolationist government of Vietnam wanted nothing to do with the Americans, so Roberts sailed on to Bangkok, where he signed America's first free trade agreement in Asia.

In the second half of the 19th century, the major European powers wanted to carve China into colonies, but they faced stiff resistance from the United States. The U.S. insisted on the famous open door policy of free trade with an independent and sovereign China.

Fast forward 100 years, and in 2001 U.S. President Bill Clinton paved the way for China's accession to the World Trade Organization. The short Communist interlude was the exception in American relations with China. Free trade and deep engagement have been the two-century norm.

Laying the groundwork

The first serving U.S. President to make an Asian trip was Dwight Eisenhower, who visited Manila, Taipei and Seoul in June 1960. With the presidential election in full swing, by that point he was already a lame duck. Lyndon Johnson's trips to the region in 1966 and 1967 inevitably focused on shoring up support for the Vietnam War, as did Richard Nixon's 1969 tour.

Chinese communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong welcomed U.S. President Richard Nixon, at his house in Beijing in 1972. (Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Nixon didn't return to Asia until his famous 1972 trip to China. His weeklong summit with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai is justly remembered as the second opening of China. Nixon visited Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The culmination of the trip was the February 27 Shanghai Communique that set the tone for U.S.-China relations for the next 45 years. Official U.S. policy toward China still follows the precepts laid down by Nixon in 1972.